Release Date: January 11, 2013
Format: ebook, 225 pages
Source: Author for blog tour
Description from Goodreads:
Sam wakes up in the hospital expecting to find his girlfriend by his bedside. Instead, he finds a bleached-blond diva, claiming to be his fiancée, hovering over him. When he learns that he's just woken up from a coma and has lost the last three years of his life, any semblance of stability he thought he had falls down around him. All he wants – all he needs – is Lil.
After countless visits with her shrink and too many sleepless nights waiting for the one man she loves to walk back through the door, Lil wants nothing more than to separate herself from the life she used to have. But the moment Sam smiles at her, Lil knows it's going to take more than self-restraint to stay away.
Second-Rate Chances is about a young man fighting to regain his memory, and the one thing in his life that felt real. A modern-day Samson and Delilah, it's a look at what it means to love and be loved, and to fight though it seems hopeless.
Second Rate Chances is the kind of book that I either love or hate. There's usually no in-between. Whenever a main character loses their memory, the way the story is told in that state of mind either enthralls me or loses me. In the case of Second Rate Chances, I was swept away with this book from page one.
Considering the fact that the plot of this book weighs heavily on Sam's memory loss, Holly Stephens actually did a great job of not letting that take everything over and bore us to death with his confusion. Written in third person POV, we jump between Sam and Lil. That's another thing I adored about this book (because I completely LOVE this book, guys!)--the POV alternating. I always love this when it's in first person, but in this book, third person just worked so well and flowed beautifully.
There was a lot of emotion in this book, but nothing overwhelming. I enjoyed this. It wasn't a book that made me ball my eyes out and put me in a funk for days, but it was most definitely a book that I felt as I read. I laughed, got pissed, got hopeful, all that jazz right along with the characters and/or FOR the characters.
And of course there was the romance. Sweet things. This was spot-on for me. It wasn't over the top, but it was sweet. Incredibly cute. There was so much longing in this book and to watch this couple work through everything--not only their relationship, but their own little issues as well--together, was just perfect. Sam and Lil are an amazing couple. Thinking of them put a smile on my face. They were real and they were perfectly impoerfect. Again--BEAUTIFUL.
Characters! There was Sam and there was Lil. There are more characters, of course, but the main ones we work with are Sam and Lil. Sam is a sweetheart. My boy all the way. I cannot imagine HOW he changed in the way that was described to make him and Lil break up before he loses his memory, but the way he is after he loses his memory is such an adorable thing. He's a character who definitely has a place in my heart. Lil! I liked her. I didn't LOVE her, but I liked her. She wasn't too bad, as far as female protaganists go. I just don't understand HER side of the problem that broke them up. I'm not going to go into detail here, but I don't feel all the blame should be on Sam here. Then again, I completely sympathize with Lil and would certainly slap Sam for his part in everything, while I'd only hug Lil for hers. So yeah. :)
Overall, Second Rate Chances was a beautiful story that I don't dislike anything about. Honestly. And that almost NEVER happens. I am most definitely looking forward to reading more by this incredible author.
Giveaway:
We're having a tour-wide giveaway! Just enter through tha Rafflecopter form below to win some cool stuff!
♥Jessica(:
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